RMIT School of Fashion and Textiles would benefit by having an online presence via a free open course. Current compatible courses is limited to a British based course How to Build a Sustainable Fashion Business run by The Ethical Fashion Forum on the Futurelearn platform. Global demand for education that discusses the environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry would be highly sought by students and the industry alike. A well received learning experience would greatly enhance the profile of RMIT’s School of Fashion and Textiles.

X or C?

Ben has previously done some MOOCs with Coursera and FutureLearn and thought this sort of approach could be a good introduction to the merchandising course as well as possible promotion for the course. In terms of resourcing a MOOC one question was which way to lean in terms of choosing an xMOOC or cMOOC format. xMOOCs like Coursera or Open2study are entirely video based delivery with build in assessments, giving the opportunity to create repeatable content once only, in a linear format. The advantage of the cMOOC is that with the lecturer not at the centre of the teaching and learning, participants share their learning and contributions back into the course where the shared and distributed knowledge creation is merely facilitated by the educator. The challenge is the educator needs to be there each time to facilitate direction in activity.

Options

As Ben was thinking about a specific 12 week block of weekly lecture based activity I was thinking the xMOOC approach would suit Ben better. We went through options such as Google Sites (great for the simplicity and speed of self built content)

Blackboard Complex to build and unattractive for participant navigation

Google Communities as an easy to use communities format, where open practice can be available

FutureLearn. RMIT has already committed to developing 2 MOOCs in the FutureLearn platform. The interface provides an attractive experience which while linear, does not have to be as dominated by video. Courses tend to mix up the mediums. There is also some participation in live events with educators such as Q and A sessions in Google Hangouts that also break up the otherwise formulaic xMOOC experience.

Test Task Manager or TTM. This is a tool developed in the school of business for providing feedback to students on their performance in a series of quizzes. This tool would provide an excellent component for formative assessment between video or other content delivery modes, similar to the quiz tools in Open2study MOOCs.

I was really glad to see Ben have a go at creating a couple of sample videos such as the one above. While the lighting and camera angle need adjusting (and perhaps some warmer weather!) Ben comes across really well. It made me think that with a few improvements, producing video based content with Ben would be relatively easy, something which is often not the case where in my experience, experienced educators can have a knack of freezing in front of the camera.

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